Throughput Enhancement for Dual-Function Radar-Embedded Communications Using Two Generalized Sidelobe Cancellers

We consider a dual-function radar communication (DFRC) system employing frequency hopping (FH) radar waveforms. Each communication symbol is represented by a phase-modulated pulse sequence that multiplies the radar hops in fast-time and transmitted from a multiple-input multiple-output radar platform. In this respect, the DFRC system considered follows the code-shift keying (CSK) signal embedding strategy. The phase modulations include phase-shift keying (PSK), derivative PSK, and continuous phase modulation. The CSK pulse sequences and the FH code are jointly designed to reduce range sidelobe levels (RSLs) and combat range sidelobes modulation. It is shown that the joint optimization using the genetic algorithm yields desired CSK sequences and FH code matrix with less computational complexity compared to the exhaustive search algorithm. The power spectral density and detection performance of various DFRC systems are analyzed, underscoring the tradeoff between RSLs and spectral sidelobe levels. The proposed DFRC system with optimum phase sequences and hopping code achieves high data communication rates by permitting frequencies to be reused in the radar hops.

Application of LFM-CPM signal into a DFRC system based on circulating code array

We present a dual-function radar communication (DFRC) system applying signal embedding through a code shift keying (CSK) strategy. The information symbol is phase encoded into a sequence and then modulated by the continuous phase modulation (CPM) before embedding into frequency hopping (FH) radar sub-pulses. The CPM modulated communication symbol phase coded sequence is multiplied with the FH radar waveforms in fast-time and transmitted through multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar platforms. We address the problem of range sidelobe modulation (RSM) and propose the design of the optimum CSK sequences to reduce the degree of change in the range sidelobe levels (RSLs) of the ambiguity function (AF). It is shown that the optimum CSK sequences yield significant reduction in the RSLs of the DFRC system. They also maintain the same degree of correlation between FH sub-pulses regardless of the communication symbol sequences embedded. Additionally, the proposed DFRC system with the optimized waveform design provides good spectrum containment and achieves high communication data rates.

Extension of two-channel transfer function based generalized sidelobe canceller for dealing with both background and point-source noise

Dual-function radar communication (DFRC) systems can provide ubiquitous communication and sensing services on a unified platform. In environmental and drone monitoring applications, the DFRC system is often expected to monitor the target area while providing communication services. However, traditional DFRC systems are mainly based on multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) arrays, which can only illuminate the whole specific angles, rather than a specific area. To address this, based on frequency diverse array MIMO (FDA-MIMO), this paper proposes an area monitoring and multi-user communication dual-function system. We formulate a weighted optimization problem that jointly considers the integrated mainlobe-to-sidelobe ratio (IMSR) and the communication sum rate. To solve this non-convex problem, a Riemannian manifold alternating optimization (RMAO) algorithm is developed. Specifically, the receive beamformer is derived in closed-form, and the transmit precoder is optimized via Riemannian conjugate gradient method. Numerical results illustrate that the proposed system can realize the angle–range selective area surveillance while providing communication service, which is not available in MIMO-based systems.

Dual-function radar-communication (DFRC) system has recently been proposed to enable the co-design of radar and wireless communications, which in turn alleviates the increased spectrum congestion crisis. DFRC system exploits the transmit beamforming technique and waveform diversity, the combination of which enables the system to embed information in radar emission. In this paper, directional modulation (DM) based on dual-function radar communication system is proposed. To achieve the security of information transmission, a beam weight vector set is established. The reference beam weight vector is initially designed and the remaining weight vectors are derived from it, by minimizing the differences between them. The transmitting beams shaped by the designed weight vectors are almost the same in radar main lobe, but differ in the amplitudes and phases towards the direction of intended communication receivers. The communication receivers decode the data based on its radiated beam. The proposed communication process is secure against intercept from directions other than the pre-assigned communication directions. Simulation results are provided for performance evaluation and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Deep neural network-based generalized sidelobe canceller for dual-channel far-field speech recognition

In this contribution, we present the noise management features of the Open Speech Platform (OSP) for hearing aid (HA) research. OSP includes basic HA modules (i) subband decomposition, (ii) wide dynamic range compression and (iii) adaptive feedback cancellation; a baseline single-channel speech enhancement (SE) based on Wiener filtering for noise subtraction. We extended OSP noise management to include a generalized sidelobe cancellation (GSC) beamforming between left and right channels, followed by the SE. Time is the scarcest resource, followed by central processing unit (CPU) resources in commercial HAs. With the proposed GSC + SE approach, we were both time and CPU limited. Release 2019a of OSP has 5.6 ms end-to-end latency and GSC requires an additional 5 ms, putting us above the 10 ms requirement. The wearable device of OSP has 4 cores, C0 – C3. C0 is used for all non-realtime tasks such as kernel, embedded web server, etc. and remaining cores are used for realtime tasks. Naive realization of GSC results in one or more cores not meeting the realtime constraints, resulting in audible artifacts. We present optimizations to meet time and CPU budgets; and preliminary objective and subjective results of the proposed system.

We consider a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) dual function radar communication (DFRC) system employing frequency hopping (FH) radar waveforms. The DFRC system embeds communication symbols using code-shift keying (CSK) strategy. Each symbol is represented by a phase modulated pulse code sequence which multiplies the radar hops in fast-time before transmitted from the MIMO radar platform. This strategy allows for reduced clutter modulation caused by changed radar waveforms within coherent processing interval (CPI). We analyze the effect of this communication symbol embedding scheme on range sildelobe levels (RSLs) and derive the DFRC probability of target detection. We show that the DFRC waveforms enhances target visibility leading to improved target detection compared with the FH radar without signal embedding.

Joint radar and communication (JRC) technology is gradually becoming an essential approach to alleviating spectral congestion. Radar and communications systems were designed with common spectral and hardware resources to reduce size, improve performance, reduce cost, and decongest the spectrum. Various approaches have been proposed to achieve the coexistence of radar and communication systems. This paper mainly focuses on the research directions of radar communication coexistence (RCC) and dual-function radar communication systems (DFRC) in JRC technology. We summarize and analyze the existing research problems in the JRC era. According to the characteristics and advantages of JRC technology, we highlight several potentials in military and commercial applications.

Next-generation spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems aim at very high resolution imaging over wide swaths in the order of hundreds of kilometers. One viable realization of such a concept is distributed SARs with along-track baselines operated under the Nyquist frequency. Undersampled received data stack needs to be reconstructed to obtain azimuth-ambiguity free data on a regular sampling grid. On the other hand, very high-resolution distributed SAR system requires very precise orbit control to avoid sampling instabilities in along-track and phase error due to the topographic sensitivity. Both time and Doppler domain reconstruction methods in the literature perform well in case of uniform and nonuniform sampling conditions. However, highly nonuniform sampling and coinciding sampling result in severe signal-to-noise ratio degradation or impossibility to recover the entire Doppler bandwidth. Depending on the frequency band, even a small cross-track baseline in the order of few meters may result in high phase errors over mountainous terrain. In this paper, we analysed the impact of the varying pulse repetition interval (PRI) on the azimuth sampling condition and proposed two time-domain polychromatic reconstruction methods suitable for multistatic SAR constellations with varying PRI.

This paper investigates energy efficient methods of increasing data rate for m-ary pulse position modulation (PPM) of impulse-based ultra wideband (UWB) systems in a multipath environment. The data rate of m-ary PPM can be increased by decreasing the pulse repetition interval (PRI) and/or increasing the number of bits transmitted per symbol. However, increasing the data rate beyond a certain limit degrades energy efficiency in a multipath environment. We investigate the relationship between data rate and energy efficiency and seek suitable bounds on the number of bits per symbol and the PRI.

The geometry of linearly and quadratically constrained optimization problems for signal processing and communications

A dual-function MIMO radar-communication system via waveform permutation

Constrained minimization problems considered here arise in the design of multi-dimensional subspace beamformers for radar, sonar, seismology, and wireless communications, and in the design of precoders and equalizers for digital communications. The problem is to minimize a quadratic form, under a set of linear or quadratic constraints. We derive the solutions to these problems and establish connections between them. We show that the quadratically-constrained problem can be solved by solving a set of linearly-constrained problems and then using a majorization argument and Poincare's separation theorem to determine which linearly-constrained problem solves the quadratically-constrained one. In addition, we present illuminating circuit diagrams for our solutions, called generalized sidelobe canceller (GSC) diagrams, which allow us to tie our constrained minimizations to linear minimum mean-squared error (LMMSE) estimations.